Roll Your Own With This Rock-Solid Custom Gaming PC

I always build my own computers. I find it fun to research all of the parts and put it all together.

My current home gaming system is getting long in the tooth, so I have started to look at building a new computer and put together this list of components.

I’m not trying to go high end with this build. I just want something that is quiet, power efficient, upgradable, and can run current and future games with maxed out settings.

I usually start a build by going to Newegg.com to spec out components. Once I narrow down the components I will look for reviews at hardware review sites like Anandtech.com to get the scoop on performance. After that I will start searching around the Internet for better prices.

I try to avoid rebates when hunting for better prices unless it is a really good deal. Total parts for this build at Newegg.com is around $1600. I typically keep my current keyboard, mouse, and monitor so those are not included.

Case: Corsair Obsidian 750D Black ATX Full Tower

Sweet-looking case that has some decent cable routing features and a large window to show off the internals.

Power supply: CORSAIR AX series AX760

Super efficient and fully modular cabling, which helps keep the system clean looking and uncluttered.

Processor: Intel Core i5-4670K Haswell

Super fast quad core processor that can be overclocked.

CPU Cooling: CORSAIR Hydro Series H105

CPU water cooling without the expense and mess of a custom setup. It will help keep the system running cool and quiet.

Motherboard: MSI Z87-G45 Gaming

Tons of cool features at a decent price.

Video card: MSI Gaming N770 TF

I went with Nvidia for the video card instead of AMD. The 770 is priced lower than the AMD R9 280x and performs about the same in benchmarks.

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600

8 gigabytes is enough for this build. There are two extra slots on the motherboard if I need to add more.

OS Drive: Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB

Super fast solid state drive with a five-year warranty. The operating system and some games and programs will be installed on this drive. It will provide fast boot up and game load times.